


Guardian

by Clea2011



Category: Primeval
Genre: Multi, Threesome - F/M/M, Through an Anomaly, Trapped in the Past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 09:16:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/pseuds/Clea2011
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker, Jess and Lester get trapped on the wrong side of an anomaly.  Becker might be in his element, but Jess and Lester aren't having that much fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guardian

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celeste9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/gifts).



> This was a Secret Santa gift for the lovely Celeste9, who requested Becker/Jess/Lester in any combination including friendship. There were four general prompts of: trapped in the past or in some remote location; dinner; friends secretly pining; under the stars. I think I managed to work them all in. Sorry it's not very porny at all, but I know Celeste has a great imagination and can fill in the gaps :-)

It was always going to happen.  

The ARC had been a hotspot for anomaly activity ever since Connor had first created his prototype anomaly there.  Of course his intentions had been good, but that hadn't stopped a steady trickle of anomalies appearing over the year that followed.

Becker and his men were on permanent watch for the things, and had been become expert in locking them in record time.  Usually.

The problem was, they were used to finding them either in Connor's old lab, which was always kept locked now for just that reason, or down in the underground car park.  Nobody was quite sure why the car park was such a draw, but they had started keeping a regular guard down there, just in case.

Once one had opened in the grounds, and another time one had opened on the roof.  Aside from that they were fairly predictable at least as far as their location was concerned.  Until the day they weren't.

It was typical though, Lester thought as he eyed the new executive decoration that had appeared in the middle of his office.  It couldn't arrive in a storeroom, or in Matt's office, or down in the armoury where Becker and his men would happily use whatever came through as target practice before Abby even noticed.  No, it had to be in his office.  And the pegomastax that had just come through simply had to do so when he'd been about to help himself to a much-needed shot of whiskey.  The wretched little thing had cannoned into him and knocked the bottle flying.  It was the good stuff too.  Lester was not best pleased.

"At least it's not dangerous," Jess ventured.  That hadn't stopped her backing up against the wall.  The door was on the other side of the office, past the creature and the anomaly.  Connor had identified it from a photo Jess had quickly snapped and sent on her phone, and tried to reassure her.  But the fact he had been still nearly a mile away at that time, and more importantly Matt, Abby and Becker were all with him or in the truck behind, did nothing to reassure them at all.

Becker's truck would get there first, of that Lester had no doubt.  He was probably already in the building by now.  It wasn't just a competitive thing with Matt, it was his desperate need to protect them all.  And if a raptor had come through and eaten the pair of them then Becker would blame himself.  It was one of the reasons Lester hadn't wanted Becker to take over as team leader once they'd rebuilt the ARC, not that there had been the slightest chance of him accepting the role even if it was offered, the state he'd been in at that time.  He'd just blame himself even more when everything went wrong.  And in their line of work things went wrong quite a lot. 

"Should we try herding it back through?" Jess whispered nervously.  She was gripping the back of his chair and he wondered if she intended trying to pick it up and use it as a shield.  It was nearly as tall as she was, and considerably wider.  Her chances of success looked slim.

Lester never entirely trusted any information that came from Connor.  It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the young man's genius, it was more that many years of experience had taught him to be wary.  He wouldn't be at all surprised to find himself in the midst of herding the thing back only to have Connor text Jess again with something barely comprehensible masquerading as English along the lines of: "LOL meant IS dangerous.  Soz. Don't touch. CU. C"

It was spectacularly ugly, and although it wasn't much bigger than a cat it didn't look particularly harmless with its big parrot-like beak and two nasty-looking teeth. 

"I think making our way carefully to the door is probably the best idea," Lester told her quietly.  "Try not to make any sudden movements."

Jess nodded, and started to edge along the wall, never taking her eyes off the creature.  Distracted by movement on the other side of his window, Lester glanced down into the hub and saw Becker and two of his men dashing towards the stairs.

The creature had found Lester's attaché case and was nipping at it curiously, more distracted by the shiny brass lock than the two humans.  They moved quietly across the room, getting close to the creature without it taking any notice of them at all.  Becker and his men were running up the stairs now , heading for the office.  They wouldn't be in time to stop the little wretch despoiling his prized Swaine Adeney Brigg lined and personalised attaché case.  He could see the bite mark in the leather already from that vicious-looking beak.  

Since the New Dawn incident, they'd started keeping spare EMDs and charges hidden in every room of the ARC, so that nobody would ever have to be far away from something to defend themselves with.  Or to chase off little beasts like this who didn't appreciate quality when they saw it. 

Unfortunately, the one in Lester's office was by the door.  That had seemed a good idea at the time, but not so great now.  Lester frowned at it. So near, and yet so far.  Another one underneath his desk was definitely needed.  

His love for that case outweighed his concerns regarding Connor's advice as he saw the little beast open its jaw to take another bite.  Lester strode over to the pegomastax, grabbed it by the neck before it could do anything with those teeth, and flung it back through the anomaly.

The anomaly flickered, and Jess froze beside him.

"What's that?"

It wasn't another one of the pegomastax.  It was bigger.  Much bigger, about Becker's height and Lester's office suddenly seemed very small.  It also appeared to have far more teeth, as it opened its mouth to demonstrate, chewing on the poor creature that they'd just sent back through the anomaly.  Lester didn't know the answer to Jess's question, but he was fairly certain this one wasn't harmless.

It was also between them and the door, and was eyeing them hungrily.  The little creature was evidently just an appetiser, with Lester as main course and Jess as dessert.

Afterwards, he wasn't quite sure how it happened.  The anomaly had been beside them, filling the small amount of the office not taken up by the therapod.  Becker and his men stood in the doorway, shouting a lot and trying to get a clear shot at the dinosaur without hitting Lester or Jess.  The creature had regarded them all for a moment, decided Jess was the easiest target and lunged at her.

Somehow, a moment later Lester and Jess were both sprawled on the ground in an unfamiliar landscape, the anomaly flickering above them and the predator looming in front of it, diving at them.  He threw himself out of the way, grateful that Jess had the presence of mind to do the same, trying to scramble to his feet and ignore the feeling that they were never going to be fast enough.

Becker was fast enough.  He burst through the anomaly, yelling at them to stay down, and blasted the carnivore with what looked like the highest setting on the EMD.  It collapsed onto the ground and stayed there, twitching.  Becker shot it again, just to make sure, then a third time.  Lester assumed, knowing Becker, that one was probably just for fun.

"No!"

Jess's cry startled him and he tried to cover up the fact with sarcasm: "Oh don't tell me you've caught Miss Maitland's irritating habit of wanting to protect every ugly beast that comes looking for dinner?" 

Jess wasn't even listening, looking up at Becker in horror.  Lester had a horrible feeling that he knew why.  After all, none of Becker's men appeared to have followed him through.  Reluctantly, he turned around.  Sure enough, the anomaly had vanished.

They were stuck.

"Well.  At least we aren't stuck with Connor."

Jess and Becker just looked at him.  

"And he'd better be doing everything he can to get that thing open again and get us back!"

"That might take a while."  Becker helped Jess to her feet, frowning at her footwear.  "We can't stay here, it's too open.  We need to get to the trees."

The trees were a long, long way off across a broad expanse of plain, cliffs rising behind them.  Lester sighed heavily, then started to walk.

***

"Ow!"

Jess was furious with herself.  She'd been determined to keep going, keep up with the two men.  But her heels just weren't going to let her.  They were fine for her job at the ARC,  she'd even run in them sometimes without any difficulty at all.  But out there, without carpets, pavements, even a moderately flat surface... it was impossible.  And she'd stuck her heel in a dip in the ground and twisted over on her ankle.  It hurt, but not too much.  Nothing serious this time.  

That didn't stop Becker making her sit down, shove his EMD at Lester, then rather roughly check her ankle over for swelling or any sign of anything that would cause problems later.

"It's fine!" she insisted.

Becker wasn't convinced.   "Those stupid shoes, Jess.  Can't you break the heels off?"

"Don't you know anything about shoes, Becker?"

Lester rolled his eyes.  "See the red soles?  They're Louboutins."

"Is that French or something for ridiculous?"

"They're expensive.  Come along, Jess, this Armani suit is going on expenses as soon as that idiot Connor works out how to reopen the anomaly, you can put those on as well.  Snap the heels off and let's get going before something eats us."

"You really think I care what they're worth out here?" Jess snapped.  "I take it neither of you have ever tried walking in stilettos with the heels broken off?"  

"Strangely enough, no I haven't.   Becker?"

Becker just looked at him in that annoying way he had when he didn't think a question was worthy of an answer.

Jess sighed.  "So we've established that neither of you know what you're talking about.  If you break the heels off, it doesn't miraculously make the shoe flat.  Because of the way the sole has been moulded it actually makes your foot tip backwards.  It's almost impossible to walk in them.  And then the sole will crack and dig into my foot, and hurt more than if I went barefoot."  She pushed the offending shoe back on and stood up.  "So it's the heels or barefoot, and I'd prefer to try the heels for a little bit longer."

It wasn't going to be easy, and she knew they were both walking a little bit more slowly for her sake.  At least the ground was dry and hard, which made it a little easier than it could have been.

"I now know far more about women's footwear than I ever wanted to," she heard Lester grumble from behind her.

"You could say it was all cobblers!" Becker added, smirking at what he obviously thought was his own cleverness.  The term sounded odd spoken in his terribly posh voice.  Lester evidently thought so too.

"That's barely worthy of Temple, Captain." 

Becker apparently couldn't think of a clever answer to that and just made a sort of "Hmph!" noise as he trudged on up the hillside.  If they carried on like that, Jess didn't know how long she could put up with it.  She was, she realised, stuck with the two grumpiest men that she knew.  And nobody else for millions of years.  And her feet were hurting a lot.  

There was of course the other option where Becker picked her up and carried her, and whilst that might be quite appealing, there was no way that she was going to allow herself to appear any more weak and helpless out there than he obviously already thought she was.  Lester at least had a little more faith in her, but then after the pair of them had been forced to face an invasion of the ARC by future predators together and survived the experience he would be stupid to do otherwise.  And James Lester, for all his lack of footwear expertise, was not stupid.

She went over on her ankle again, and couldn't stop herself giving another little cry as she did so.

"Right, that's enough."  Becker sat down and began to pull his boots off.  "I'm not risking you breaking your ankle out here."

"Your feet are twice the size of mine," Jess pointed out.  "Thanks, but those won't fit me."

Becker threw a warm, rather damp and smelly thick sock at her, quickly followed by a second one.  "Put them on.  They'll protect your feet a little."  He looked across at Lester.  "Two pairs would be better."

With a long-suffering sigh, Lester sat down and removed his own shoes and socks.  "Blisters.  Wonderful," he complained.  "And these are cashmere and silk blend.  They were never intended to be used for stomping around the prehistoric landscape.  Just as soon as we get back, Miss Parker, we'll be having a review of the office dress code.  And we'll be starting with footwear!"  

Jess regarded her feet bundled up in the socks and thought she would be happy enough to go along with that.  After the future predator incident she'd started keeping a pair of trainers in her desk drawer, just in case.  They'd been there, useless and out of reach when the anomaly opened in Lester's office.  

Still, she took heart from the fact that Lester assumed they'd get back.  Looking out across the prehistoric landscape, Jess thought he might be being overly optimistic.

She stood up.  The socks weren't much protection but they were a lot better than nothing.  The shelter of the forest still seemed a very long way in the distance.   Feeling every stone bruising underfoot, she started to walk.

***

They walked for over an hour before they reached the shade of the trees.  Becker hated the slow progress.  Anything could attack them, they were totally exposed.  He wanted to bundle Jess up in survival gear, thick boots and a tac vest.  Lester too, though he wasn't dressed quite as impractically as Jess.  Armani suits weren't made to trudge around whatever era they were in.  Early Jurassic, if Connor's assessment of the little dinosaur had been correct, but who knew? 

Nobody could be more impractically dressed than Jess, he thought.  Bright colours, sure to attract every predator in the area.  It was hot, and she was probably cooler than either Lester or himself, but that was no consolation.  She'd refused his offer of the tac vest, twice, telling him she had no intention of throwing herself in front of a creature and that his need was going to be greater if he was going to defend them properly.  He'd wondered about giving it to Lester, but one look at his boss's expression told him exactly how well that was going to be received so he decided not to even try.  The vest was quite hot and heavy though.  In fact, the whole kit was.  He'd shed his jacket and tied it round his waist, but that was still too hot.  And the thigh straps were starting to rub where his legs were getting far too sweaty.

Why didn't the anomaly reopen?  There were always plenty of them normally, usually waiting until he'd got home and settled down in front of the TV with a beer and takeaway before opening and having him racing back to the ARC.  He doubted his ability to keep them both alive out there for long.  It had to reopen.  It had to.

He walked ahead of them, ever alert, never taking his eyes off their surroundings.  Sooner or later something would attack, and he was going to be ready.  At least out on the plains he would be able to see what was coming.  The trouble was, everything could see them as well.  And Jess was slowing them down.  He had to walk very slowly, shorten his long strides.  

He wasn't going to lose another friend.  Especially not those two. 

***

Somehow, the woods looked even less appetising than the plains.  

James Lester had no intention of spending the night sitting up in a tree as if he were some kind of monkey.  Becker's suggestion might be fine for a bunch of soldiers, but it wasn't for him and he didn't think Jess would want to go up either.  She was looking at the smooth bark warily, probably wondering how on earth she was supposed to climb it.  He was wondering the same thing himself.

There were the cliffs still in the distance.  Perhaps they wouldn't manage to reach them before nightfall.  Perhaps they'd have no choice but to climb a tree, somehow.  Or perhaps something hungry would come along and where they stayed the night would no longer be their concern.

Abby and Connor had survived a whole year in the Cretaceous.  But this wasn't the Cretaceous, it was even earlier.  And Jess wasn't Abby.

He shouldn't think like that, he knew.  He'd been there with her at what might have been the end of the world, lying on the floor of the armoury bleeding.  The only reason he was still breathing was because she'd stood there and shot at the predator that had gone for him over and over again until it had stopped moving.   Yes, she'd been shaking and crying while she did it, and she hadn't stopped shaking and crying until Becker and the others had arrived and killed the things.  But that didn't matter because she hadn't done the cowardly and stupid thing of running away.  Becker didn't know about it.  Becker hadn't seen that, and as far as Lester knew Jess hadn't told him because she always refused to talk about it and had asked him not to either.  Becker would probably draw all the wrong conclusions anyway.  

She wasn't crying out there now, though her make-up was enough of a mess that she might as well be.  But there was something sad and resigned in her expression that he'd never seen before.  Presumably she thought she'd be the first to fall.  Months ago he would have thought the same thing, but he wasn't so sure now.  Becker, charging into danger, trying to protect them, always needing to do the brave thing, the heroic thing – it was only a matter of time before it got him killed.

Out there they had plenty of time for that to happen.  And it might not be either of them, he thought; after all he could comfort himself that it might be him!  And then he wouldn't have to worry about watching two people die whom he cared for more than he'd ever admit to either of them.  A distant roar from some unknown overgrown lizard reminded him just how great a possibility that fate was.

They needed to get somewhere safer than a tree for all their sakes.

He kept walking, following the other two, occasionally helping Jess when she tripped or stepped on something painful.  Each time it happened, Becker would look back and wait, constantly scanning the trees.  He rarely looked at the two of them, just the trees, presumably waiting for death to come springing at them with teeth and claws.

It was a long, slow journey.  Long before they neared the cliffs they were starting to lose the light.  Becker found a huge, sturdy tree and insisted they go no further.  They spent an uncomfortable night up in the branches, none of them sleeping, startling at every small noise, every cry.  Out there in the pitch black of the prehistoric night every sound was a cause for fear, every creature passing the base of the tree a new terror.

The climb ripped Lester's jacket, tore Jess's dress and in the morning Lester could see a nasty scrape along Becker's forearms, probably from when he'd grabbed Jess to stop her falling.   It needed to be the first and last night they spent in a tree.  A useful anomaly back to his office, or Connor's lab, or just any civilisation at all really would be perfect.  Not a tree.  Anything but a tree.

***

They stumbled on the cave purely by chance.

They had walked most of the second day, half of it along the foot of the hills, looking up hopefully.  There had been no sign of anything useful as a shelter, and they would have passed it by entirely if Jess hadn't stepped on a shard of rock and needed to stop for a few moments.  Lester had gone behind an outcrop of rock to relieve himself, and fortunately spotted the cave entrance hidden there before he did so.

It went deep, but most of it was too narrow to access.  Hopefully it was too narrow for any predator to access either.  The habitable part went back about 20 metres, then tapered off to a narrow crevice.  They could hear water beyond but had no way to reach it.  Wherever the river they could hear went, it was probably deep underground because there was only the smallest stream anywhere nearby, and it wasn't coming from the cliffs.

Water, though, was going to be a problem.  Because he'd come straight from an anomaly shout, Becker still had his full tac vest and all its useful contents including a small water bottle.  That had run out the previous day, and the small supply of purification tablets he had with him was already running very low, and they left  a strange aftertaste.  Once they'd gone, the water would need to be boiled.  Sadly Becker's vest didn't run to a helpful collection of foldaway pots and pans.   

Becker and Lester had lit a fire, and left Jess with the task of making some sort of clay pot from raw clay while they went looking for food.  Somehow it wasn't as easy as it had been at school.  Clay fresh from the ground had leaves and twigs and who knew what else in it.  The coil pot she eventually put together looked okay but fell apart on the fire.  The next one was slightly better and mostly held together.  She kept trying.  It was something useful to do, after all.  

She left the third one baking beside the second, keeping back behind the fire where Becker had ordered her to stay.  She could see Lester coming back with an armful of firewood.  There was no sign of Becker yet.

Abby and Connor had lived out in the Cretaceous for a year.  A whole year.  Jess stared miserably at the damp, cold and gloomy cave which was the best thing they'd found out there so far.  A year seemed a very, very long time.  And it could turn out to be so much longer.

She forced a smile at Lester.  They'd do a lot better out here without her, she knew.  If only she'd worn trousers to work, flatter, more sensible shoes.  She was never wearing anything impractical ever again, because who knew when one of those things would open up?  If they ever got home, she'd be prepared.

***

It was like survival training all over again.  Becker had loved that, him against the elements.  He wasn't loving this.

He knew he was making Jess unhappy, but he couldn't help himself.  Every time he looked at her, stuck out there in the middle of a world she should never have to be a part of, his heart broke.  She was going to perish, and they would have to live with it.  Lester wouldn't show it, but Becker knew it would hit him just as hard.

And Lester shouldn't be out there either.  Fine, he was a lot tougher than he looked.  He didn't have a lot of choice, being one of the few surviving people to encounter future predators twice.  But he was supposed to be in a comfortable office, safely back at the ARC, terrorising the newer staff and shouting ineffectually at the seasoned anomaly teams who knew the threats were largely empty.

There was a creature rustling in the undergrowth.  One of the ugly parrot-like things that had caused all the trouble in the first place.  Definitely a candidate for dinner.  It looked at him, cocking its head on one side, apparently sizing him up.  Apparently he wasn't as scary as he liked to think he was, because it didn't run off immediately.  No wonder the stupid thing was extinct, he thought.  

He struck it with the useless EMD, then quickly and cleanly wrung its neck before the creature had a chance to suffer.  It was food.  Small, scrawny food.  He wondered if there were more around.  It wasn't going to be much of a meal.

There was nothing immediately apparent, and it was too far to go back to the river where they'd caught the fish the previous day.  He'd already been gone longer than he wanted to be.  Anything could have happened to the others in the meantime.  

Images of Lester lying on the floor of the ARC came back to him, his head in Jess's lap, blood all over both of them, Jess herself shaking and crying and then pointing that EMD at him because she wasn't going to go down without a fight...

One of those things was going to have to be enough.  He practically ran back to the cave.

***

Lester had restocked the fire, and wasn't sure what else he could do.   It was quite possible they'd die of boredom out there, if some overgrown lizard didn't eat them first.  

Jess was uncharacteristically quiet, he noticed.  It was never a good sign with her, he tended to shut out her chit-chat sometimes, but he liked to have it there, reassuringly familiar.  She'd been trying to build some vessels that would hold water; apparently she'd been good at ceramics at school and thought she could help.    

He looked at the pots.  Jess had made a decent enough attempt at them, but the unprepared clay they'd dug up had been full of tiny pieces of leaf and twig debris that had caused cracks and chips in the finished products, and in one case split it right across.  They looked so mis-shapen as a result that he didn't even have the heart to make a sarcastic comment about them.  That probably said more to Jess than any cutting comment ever could, because she knew him far too well.  But then, he doubted he would be able to do any better.  Neither of them were really built for the outdoor life.  Becker though, seemed to be in his element out there, killing things, surviving on the edge.    

"This one's not bad," he tried to reassure her, holding up the only one that didn't look as if it might fall apart at any second.  "And you'll get better at this."

Lester knew pep talks weren't really his thing.  It was always easier with Jess, because they worked so closely together and had been through a little bit too much together now, but still.  He knew her well enough to realise that she was hating sitting there with nothing useful to do.  

"Thanks James," She took the pot from him and turned it over, regarding it with a wry smile.  "I suppose if you're feeling the need to be nice about it then the others must be pretty dreadful!"

Okay, she knew him far too well.

"I'm sure none of us could do any better."

"I'm sure Becker would disagree with you there.  I'm surprised Captain Caveman hasn't turned up with a full dinner set, just to show yet another thing I can't do out here.  God, I hate feeling so useless.  I almost wish that thing had eaten me!"

"You're not useless."

"Really?  I don't even have any proper footwear.  I have to sit in here while you two go out and provide for us.  I _hate_ it.  What if we're stuck here forever?  What if something happens to Becker or you, and I wouldn't know because I'm just sitting in here?  What if Becker just gets fed up and goes off?  How would we manage?"

"We'd be fine."  He patted her shoulder reassuringly.  He wondered if he should give her a hug, but he wasn't sure how she'd take it.  He didn't want some kind of harassment charge when they were back at the ARC.  She looked as if she were on the verge of tears.  He didn't deal with tears very well.  "Come on, we survived future predators, Jess.  We're a great team, remember?  This lot let themselves get extinct in a few hundred thousand years, they don't stand a chance!"

She nodded, then hugged him anyway.  Which was fine, because now he could fling the harassment charge back at her if needs be, and anyway she really did feel very small and vulnerable in his arms.  He could feel her trembling.  He really needed to keep more of an emotional distance between himself and his staff.  Except Jess.  No, especially Jess.

Becker stomped into the cave at that moment and scowled at the two of them.  By the looks of it he'd brought dinner.

Becker, he supposed, despite all his current grumpiness, would be the first to punch him if he laid so much as a finger on Jess, boss or not.  

He pulled away from the girl.  Probably time to make himself scarce.

***

Becker had appointed himself hunter/gatherer/protector.  That was fine with Jess, until the moment he returned with a dead, headless animal and dropped it in front of her.  It hadn't really taken very long for the inner caveman to surface, she thought.

Lester had gone off to find more firewood as soon as Becker had returned.  It was infuriating that they both felt she was so incapable that one had to stand guard over her at almost all times.  She was practically barefoot, it was true, but Lester had just reminded her she'd managed to hold her own against a future predator completely barefoot and lived to tell the tale.  She'd had an EMD then, though.  She'd give a lot for an EMD now.  There was a definite temptation to emulate Matt and shoot a certain soldier with it too.

"Is that a rabbit?"  It was difficult to tell with all the blood.   There was fur... or feathers... or something and it couldn't be a rabbit because they were too far back.  Much too far back. 

Becker shrugged.  "It's one of those ugly things that came through the anomaly.  Now it's dinner.  Can you skin it?"

He didn't sound very hopeful.  She knew he was expecting a no, and she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction no matter how little she relished the prospect.

"I can try.  Give me your knife."

Annoyingly, instead of letting her learn he knelt down and cut the skin away with a practiced ease.  Survival skill training, she supposed.  It would be nice to have it passed on, but he did it so fast that she didn't think she could replicate it.

He handed her the bloodied meat, obviously expecting her to cook it.  Jess wasn't a dreadful cook by any means, but she always followed step-by-step recipes that she looked up on the internet before attempting anything, and she mostly relied on the cooking instructions that were printed on everything including fresh meat.  There were no instructions on the...whatever it was.  Jess had seen enough films and been to enough barbeques to know that you could skewer it and roast it over the fire, so that was what she did – as best she could with just a stick and a fire.  The meat kept falling into the fire anyway because the makeshift spit wasn't much use.  That wasn't Jess's fault – Becker himself had set that up – but as it was made of wood it kept catching fire and in the end she chopped the meat up into something resembling small cubes and cooked them on sticks resting on one of her clay disasters.  The sticks still kept catching fire, and the meat was tough and chewy and  burnt to charcoal on the outside, but at least they wouldn't get food poisoning. 

Becker was being a pig.

There was no other way to describe his behaviour.  Sometimes she wondered what she'd ever seen in him.  If there was a choice of people to be stuck in the past with, he'd no longer be top of Jess's list.  Possibly somewhere down the bottom, near to that horrible Admiral who'd turned up when a submarine had gone through an anomaly.  Becker was demonstrating that he was cut from the same cloth.  Also, he had a beard and it made him look much older, much more serious, and maybe a little bit scary.  She preferred it when there was just Lester around.  She thought Becker probably did as well.

On the third day he'd brought back dinner again.  It was the ugliest fish that Jess had ever seen.

She stopped Becker as he moved to gut it, knowing she'd never get an ounce of respect from him until he realised she wasn't going to fall apart out there.

"Show me how to do it."

"I can do it, Jess."

"And I can't.  So show me.  Or I'll be no use at all out here."

She knew he probably thought that was already the case.  It was going to take a lot of proving otherwise to change his stubborn mind.

"Fine."  He pointed with the knife.  "You cut here, in and then down.  Split it, then clean it out."

It wasn't pleasant, but she did it without too much difficulty.  It was only a fish, after all.  Next time it might be something bigger.

And baked on the fire it tasted pretty good.

***

There was a full moon that night.

Becker stood guard, because he always wanted to stand guard, every night.

Night was when he came into his own, out under the stars, watching and waiting for something to come for them.  Something would.  They'd been too lucky so far.  It was going to happen, and he would be ready.  

The other two were asleep; he could hear Lester's gentle snores and the little snuffling noises Jess always seemed to make.  Neither of them appeared to have any real comprehension of how to be quiet, no true survival instinct.  If anything happened to him, he couldn't see them surviving for long out there.

Out across the valley, invisible in the relentless black of the primeval night, something cried out.  Perhaps it was just a call to its mate, some nocturnal creature.  But it sounded like a howl, a call to arms for some pack animals.  Perhaps they could scent the three humans holed up in the scant shelter of the cave, their only real protection a fire that so far had kept the creatures at bay.  It wouldn't keep them away forever.

The charge on the EMD had long since run out.  Not for the first time Becker cursed Matt and his short-sightedness in introducing the useless things.  If only he still had his shotgun, at least he could have conserved the bullets rather than watch the electric charge wear down to nothing even though it had barely been used.

Taking a leaf from Danny's book, he'd started to carry a big stick.  He wasn't about to start naming it, though.  Or talking to it.

He listened to them again, looking back at them in the reflected light from the fire.  They were huddled close for warmth, almost snuggled together, grown closer while he pushed them both out.  

Jess had asked him to show her how to fish.  She seemed to think this was something she'd be able to do.  As if he'd let her anywhere near that water.  He'd seen the predators that came to drink at the river, and the huge carnivorous fish that blended in so well that they were impossible to see until they were on top of you.  His refusal had obviously made her hate him just that little bit more.  Which was fine, if it kept her alive.  

She'd got her arm around Lester.  They seemed so very close, ever since that damned predator had nearly finished the pair of them.

Maybe it wasn't fine, being shut out.

He turned away, concentrating on the stars, the sky and the night.  Something would come for them, and he had to be ready.  No time for any distractions.  

***

Jess was lying curled up on her sofa.  She'd fallen asleep watching the television and was still wearing her little dress from work which was why she was cold.  She curled up tighter, not wanting to move, shivering a little.  The warm cushion she'd been holding was pulling away, which wasn't right because they shouldn't do that.  And the sofa was even more cold and hard than she remembered it.  She really should have gone to bed, she thought.

"Just a few hours, then I'll take over again."

It was Becker's voice.  As it woke her, she had a sudden sinking feeling that she knew where she was, and it wasn't her sofa.  Nothing so warm or comfortable.  Lester was getting up to take his turn on watch.

Jess yawned and sat up.  "I should take a turn."

"There's no need," Becker told her. "We've got it covered."

"I can take a few hours, let you two get a decent amount of sleep.  If I took the middle shift every night you'd both get a longer rest."

"And what if something attacks?"

"Then I'll wake you."

"Not if you don't see it until too late."

"I'm perfectly capable of keeping watch," Jess protested.

"I don't think it's a good idea."

"Don't be so bloody stupid.  Let Jess take her turn, and get some sleep."

"But..."

"She keeps watch.  All day, every day.  It's what she does.  If there's one person I trust to spot an anomaly or creature, it's Jess.  End of discussion.  Jess, wake me when it's my watch.  Captain, go to sleep, that's an order!"

For a few moments the two men just stared at each other.  Jess could see the barely-concealed anger in Becker's eyes and she wondered if he was going to refuse.  But the military training to obey orders was ingrained into him too strongly, and he gave in, taking Jess's place next to Lester on the thickly-piled heap of ferns that they all used as a bed.  It was hardly comfortable, but slightly better than the bare rock of the cave floor.

Mouthing a silent thank you to Lester, Jess took her place beside the fire, wide awake.  There was no way that she was going to miss anything.

After a while, she could hear Lester's breathing deepen as he went back to sleep.  There was silence from Becker.  She knew that he was wide awake and would be until she let Lester take over.  Keeping her back to him, ignoring his lack of faith in her, Jess kept watch.

***

If it were possible, Becker was in an even worse mood in the morning.

He looked tired and drawn, and Lester was fairly certain he hadn't slept at all.  Even when Jess had finished her watch and lay down on their makeshift mattress (lying as far away from Becker as she possibly could, he noticed), the soldier was still restless.

At first light he was up, announced something about going to find food, and was gone.  Lester let him go, supposing he could take out some of his tension on whichever unfortunate creature crossed his path.  When he'd calmed down, they would have to talk because it was getting unpleasant and they could be stuck out there with only each other for company for a long, long time.

Jess woke up a little later, and padded over to join him beside the fire.

"Thanks for sticking up for me last night."

"I did it so that I could have a few more hours sleep every night.  Don't thank me, it's a very boring job."

"Still," she reached over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.  "I'm glad someone still has faith in me."

She hadn't, he noticed, moved away.   Instead she shuffled up closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.  He wished she wouldn't do that.  She was probably seeing him as some sort of kindly father figure, and really he was finding it very hard to think of her in that way at all.  Her dress hadn't been overly modest even before it had been dragged through several days in pre-history, now it was barely covering everything it should.  No wonder Becker was getting into such a foul mood.  

"I'm glad you're out here," she told him.

"Jess..."

"No, I mean I don't wish you'd got trapped out here, of course I don't, I'm just glad I'm not stuck out here just with Becker, not when he's like this."

"He's just worried.  If anything happens to you he's going to blame himself."

"And if anything happens to you he'd be just as bad.  I know what he's like too.  But it's not much fun."

Becker wasn't much fun.  But he was the bravest man Lester knew.  And it would break him if he lost any more friends.  It had come close to breaking him when Abby, Connor and Danny had been lost, and then Sarah had died.  At one point Lester had thought he'd never get his trusted captain and friend back in the ARC.  It had taken a great deal of persuasion.  Having it all happen again, being trapped with them, it would be eating at him.  

"There isn't a lot that's fun about this situation, Jess."  He looked down, saw far too much skin on display thanks to her ruined dress, and quickly looked up.  Those big blue eyes were looking back at him sadly.  They were telling him she was a liability out there, and that she knew it and hated it.  "We'll get home, don't worry."

"What if we don't?"  

Now he could see the tears welling up.  He cautiously put an arm around her.  "I'm sure we will.  There's  usually one of those infernal things opening up somewhere."

She snuggled in closer to him, and it was impossible not to react, and he knew that she could feel him against her from her soft "Oh" of surprise.  

She still didn't pull away.  That harassment case would be on his desk the second they got back.  She pressed closer.

"It's okay, you know?  If you want to.  I mean, I'd like to."  She leaned forward then a little hesitantly kissed him.  Her lips were very soft.  "I'd really like to." 

He wondered how the hell they'd got from keeping watch to that?

"Becker might come back."  He thought he'd guessed her game.  She was attempting to make the man she liked jealous.  He was surprised and a bit disappointed in her, having always thought that she was better than that.

"He said he was going to the river.  He won't be back for ages.  Come on," she stood up, and held out her hand.  "No ties, nothing.   Just some mutual comfort out here.   Please?"

He shouldn't.  He knew if they got back things would get awkward.  And there was Becker to consider.  Though he really did seem to be regarding the pair of them as a liability, and he might not be wrong.  Besides, sometimes he thought Becker was more interested in Matt than in anyone.  He probably wouldn't care what they did.  And she was right about the mutual comfort.  They were all going to wind up in some creature's belly sooner or later.  It wasn't a prospect he was particularly looking forward to.  Just a little time away from it and not thinking about it sounded pretty good.

The fire was high.  The chances of anything coming along and daring to pass it were remote.   

He took her hand and followed her to the back of the cave.

***

Hunting was a dilemma.  It was quicker, usually, to track down one of the ugly little parrot creatures and take that back.  But they didn't taste that good, and took ages to prepare.  It meant he had longer at the cave and worried about the other two less.  But fresh fish was more satisfying, tastier and easier to prepare.    

It was further to walk to the river, and sometimes it took him ages to catch just one fish.  Spearing them was easier than trying to make some sort of fishing rod and then just sitting there, something he didn't have the patience to do anyway.  

Becker was in no rush to get back to the cave, angry with Lester for undermining him, and angry with Jess for being the cause.  If the pair of them got caught by some soon-to-be-extinct giant lizard then that was their own lookout.  He didn't care.

Except of course he did.  But he just needed a little break.

The fish were plentiful.  Perhaps it was their equivalent of spawning upstream and he'd just got lucky.  Whatever it was, he caught two of them quickly and easily, and long before he wanted to he was heading back towards the cave.  

He could see it easily now, with the fire in the mouth a beacon for all around to see.  Fortunately it wasn't attractive to anything, and they all kept away.  

He'd calmed down by the time he got back, and although he was never going to apologise because he was sure Jess shouldn't be keeping watch, he intended making some small effort to be civil.  And they'd like the fish.  All three of them were more even-tempered on a full stomach.  

There was something not quite right.  He noticed as he approached that neither of them were  near the entrance, keeping sentry duty.  It proved him right, that neither could really be trusted to keep watch.  He broke into a run, a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

There were noises coming from the cave, and for a moment he thought they were being attacked and he was too late and all his nightmares had come at once.

But it wasn't that.

He froze in the entrance, stunned by the scene before him.  Because he hadn't expected that.  Gently he laid his kill by the fire, and backed away quietly.  Anywhere but there.

***

They were dozing pleasantly, almost asleep.  Lester didn't know what it was that startled him awake, some creature screaming far across the forest, but he suddenly came to his senses and sat upright, nudging Jess awake.

She stretched languorously, rolling over and reaching for him.  "That was lovely."

"Yes, yes, but Becker could come back at any moment.  Here," he pushed her dress at her, trying to ignore the pout he received in return.  He scrambled into his own clothes, wondering just how long they'd been lying there. 

The fire was starting to go down and would need restocking soon.  So probably quite a while.  Perhaps they did fall asleep.   A gasp from behind him pretty much confirmed his suspicions.

"What's that?"  Jess peered at the two ugly-looking fish lying just inside the cave entrance.  "Oh.  Becker must've come back while... oh God!" She covered her face with her hands.  "He saw us... oh God!"

"He's always had a thing for you."

"Me?  I thought he always had a thing for _you_!"

They looked at each other in confusion.

"Well you must know.  You've known him longer, he must've had a partner at some point."

Lester shook his head.  "He's the most private person I've ever met.  Anyway, you read all the personnel files as if they're some gossip magazine, don't you know?"

Jess didn't even bother to deny it.  "Some of them are better than any gossip magazine," she grinned.  "But not Becker's.  There's nothing."

"He definitely likes you, Jess."

"I still think it's you."

"Perhaps it's both of us," Lester mused drily.

Jess raised an eyebrow.  "Well.  Now wouldn't _that_ be fun?"

"Obviously I was joking." He looked at Jess's beaming face and realised that she really wasn't.  "Dear God..."

"You should go and find him, he's known you longer.  I'll stay here in case he comes back."

"But..."

"No buts.  Go."

Lester had the strangest feeling that somehow that afternoon the power dynamic in their relationship had shifted, and the little minx who liked ordering them all around on anomaly shouts had found a new way to exert her authority.  He'd definitely be putting a stop to that just as soon as he got Becker to back him up.  

That was why he was going.  No other reason.  Because obviously Jess was wrong.

He tried not to think about what it might be like being caught between the two of them...

Yes, back-up.  And they needed to stay together out there.  Safety in numbers and all that.

He went.

***

Jess had never wanted to be that girl.  Not the one who slept with her boss.  

People had commented on their closeness because that was what people in offices did, but nobody seemed to think there was anything in it because she'd always had a thing for Becker.  It annoyed her that she still had a bit of a thing for Becker, and that she hated the way he wouldn't let her do anything useful out there. She'd needed the closeness, the sweetness just for a short time, and it had nothing to do with any sort of career climbing and everything to do with how much they cared about each other and anyway she had a bit of a thing for Lester too and he was being a damned sight kinder to her than Becker was.  

If she was that girl, she could twist the boss around her little finger in the end and get anyone dismissed who didn't treat her right.

She wasn't that girl.  

But she'd still slept with her boss.

She sat for a while, fretting about it.  It was all very well, all the bravado a little while earlier, but she wasn't really looking forward to what would happen when the two men returned.  Because really, what were the chances that it would all go well?  And what if the three of them were stuck out there forever, and Becker just went off and they never saw him again or found out what had happened to him?  She didn't think she could bear it, and she was quite sure no matter how much he tried to hide it Lester would never forgive himself.  Becker was only being his protective self, after all, and if it came across all sexist and patronising then that was just his way, annoying though it was.  

There was no point in sitting around waiting.  Becker had left the two fish for them, she needed to gut them and clean them.  At least that was one thing she was allowed to do.  

Except something had already found them.  Becker had dropped them right by the entrance, too far out for the scent to be completely hidden by the fire.  And something had smelled the fish and come hunting.  It was another one of those things that had appeared in Lester's office.  Not one of the small things, unfortunately.   The fire was low, too low.  James would've gone out and restocked it if she hadn't distracted him.  

So far it had only noticed the fish, too distracted by what was left of the fire and the food to notice her hiding in the darkness of the cave.  But if it came past the fire and into the cave it would soon spot her, and there would be nowhere to run.

One of the huge sticks that Becker liked to carry was lying abandoned towards the back of the cave.  Every time he found a bigger, stronger one he'd bring the old one back for firewood.  That one hadn't gone on yet and she wondered if she could use it to heat up the fire.  Probably not in time to stop the predator getting inside, she realised.  And if she went outside and ran for it, she would be chased down and caught.

Jess quickly picked up one of the fish and threw it outside, distracting the creature for a while.  There was a chance the others would come back in time to help her if she delayed it enough.  In the meantime she picked up the stick.  It wasn't too heavy, though she doubted that she would be able to do much good with it, not having much body weight to back up any attempts to hit the thing.  Keeping one eye on the predator, ready to throw the second fish as soon as she needed to, Jess put the end of the stick in the fire.  Running back, she grabbed some of the ferns they'd been using for bedding and tried to stoke the fire with those.  It didn't make much difference. 

Almost immediately she had to throw the second fish.  The smell still lingered, and she knew that any moment the creature would be coming in, investigating whether there was any more food.  There was only one food source left.

The second fish was snapped up in an instant.  The creature turned and looked towards the cave.  Jess took a deep breath, sent up a silent prayer, then reached for the stick.

***

Becker hadn't gone far.  

He wanted to.  Part of him longed to just walk away, as far as he could, and never return.  Because seeing the two people who meant most to him in the world together like that, forever cutting him out, hurt more than he thought possible.

Of course it was his own fault.  He had always kept Jess at arm's length, when she'd made her interest plain.  Of course she'd move on.  And of course she'd move on to James, because he was the best of them all, and who wouldn't?  It wasn't as if he had any claim on either of them.

They'd know, when they saw the fish, that he'd been there, seen them.  If he'd taken it away with him, pretended he'd never seen anything, they could've carried on as normal.  He was good at pretending when he didn't want to acknowledge something.

Eventually he'd have to go back and face them.  Maybe he should go back to the river and catch more fish, stay there for a while, a good excuse to hide.  But the light would fade with the day and he wouldn't be able to escape the necessity to go back.  He found something to do, gathering up dry wood for the fire, because someone had to do it and Lester was otherwise engaged.  When he couldn't carry any more, he bundled it up as best he could with some vines, and then sat down and waited.  He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but he wasn't going back to that cave until he was absolutely sure they weren't still shagging each other's brains out.

He'd not even gone completely out of sight of the cave, having found an area where the trees were thinner and stayed there.  If anything headed towards them, he'd see and could rush back to help them.   He was mostly hidden by the trees in his low position, but when Lester emerged it was easy enough for Becker to spot him.  

At least it wasn't both of them that had come after him.  He knew that was what Lester was doing just from the way he was looking around, peering into the foliage below the cave.  The entrance was a little way up the cliff, but the cliff had cracked in such a way that there was almost a ledge running in front of it.  It wasn't too difficult to climb up and down – and unfortunately that was true for predators as well as for the three people who had made it their temporary home.

At least Lester wasn't stupid and didn't stand there shouting, attracting every predator in the area.  He was coming down, though, presumably to start searching.  Becker didn't really want to be found.  He also didn't want Lester wandering through the forest, even though he'd had the sense to pick up one of the makeshift clubs Becker had insisted they took whenever they left the cave.   And he didn't particularly like the idea of Jess left alone in the cave, especially as the fire was starting to look ominously low.  Sighing heavily, he took up the bundle of wood, and trudged back to meet Lester.  

The undergrowth and his own lack of enthusiasm for the conversation ahead made for slow progress, but all too quickly Lester was in front of him, the expression on his face telling Becker all he needed to know about how uncomfortable he was feeling.  Well, that was mutual.  They stared at each other in an awkward silence, which they broke simultaneously:

"Becker, it's not..."

"I've brought firewood."

"Right."  Lester looked at the bundle Becker had dropped at his feet.  "Of course you have."  He paused, then tried again: "I'm not going to insult your intelligence by offering excuses."

"Thank you.  Some sort of 'do not disturb' sign would be appreciated too."

"Yes, yes.  Jess... had an interesting proposition."  

"I could see that."  Becker wondered if Lester could look more uncomfortable.  He had no intention of making it any easier.  He felt cheated.  He wasn't quite sure which of them it was by.  

"Just come back, Becker, Jess is far better at explaining this than I am.  And as she can talk for England, you'll probably find it a lot harder to interrupt her."  He picked up the firewood.  "Come on."

"I don't really need an explanation." Becker grumbled, but followed anyway.  He couldn't see the cave through the thick foliage from their current position, and didn't really like the idea of leaving Jess protected only by that dwindling fire.  They'd done it a few times, but not for long and the fire had always been blazing strongly.  The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.  

Somehow, it seemed that they were further into the woods than he had thought.  It took a ridiculously long time before they could clearly see the cave entrance again.  Becker cannoned into Lester, who had stopped dead as soon as he saw it. 

"Oh no."

Becker pushed past him, looked up and saw the creature up on the ledge.  It was leaning into the cave, managing to avoid the low fire that was no longer much of a deterrent at all.  He was running, vaguely aware of Lester following, both of them shouting at the dinosaur, trying to distract it or scare it off, anything, but they weren't quite close enough.  

Suddenly the predator gave a cry of distress and stepped backwards.  He could see Jess appear in the entrance, with what looked like a large torch in her hands.  She jabbed the torch in the creature's face again and again, forcing it to back away.  One slip and those snapping jaws would have her.   Becker cursed, and ran faster.  Yelling was doing no good – the dinosaur was intent only on his attacker and potential dinner.  Jess jabbed the torch right in its face, it squealed, jumped back and then was suddenly gone as it slipped over the side and crashed to the ground below.

There didn't appear to be any others, and that one needed to be dead because otherwise it would be back now that it had found prey.  Becker raced around to where it had fallen, and found it struggling to get back up.  Probably something was broken and it would just die anyway, but he wasn't taking the risk.  Raising the huge club-like stick that never left his side, he brought it down on the creature's head with a sickening thud, over and over until it stopped moving, its head a bloodied mess.

"I think it's dead, you can stop now," Lester told him, putting out a hand to stop the club coming down again.  

"We should burn it or something will smell the blood and investigate.  We don't want anything coming near the cave."

Jess had come down to join them, wrinkled her nose at what was left of the creature's head, and handed him her makeshift torch.  "It came after the fish.  You might want to take some of that for dinner first, seeing as it's eaten ours."

He drew out his knife and handed it to her.  When she looked at him blankly, he added: "It's your kill, Jess."

It might have been her kill, but she couldn't get through the tough skin very easily and he had to gouge out a large chunk of flesh for her in the end.  He intended getting her a few of those bigger sticks, and to find something flammable to cover them with so that she had a better weapon to defend herself with for when she did her turn keeping watch, now that he knew she wouldn't just scream and let herself be eaten.  

Jess took the meat away to wash it in the tiny trickle of a stream that ran out of the base of the cliff, presumably a tiny off-shoot from the river they could hear.  Lester had gone off to top up the fire before it went out completely, then Becker set to work on burning the corpse before anything else came looking.  By the time he'd washed off the blood and got back to the cave, the fire was blazing merrily and the meat was roasting on Jess's latest pottery attempt.  This one appeared to actually be useable.

"Okay?" Jess asked as he came in.   

"I'll have to be, won't I?" He sat down, close to the fire to help dry himself off more quickly.  "Just warn me next time you two want me to make myself scarce."

"Hmm, about that."

Lester had stopped whatever it was he was doing at the back of the cave, and was obviously listening.

"You know, it might only be the three of us here forever."

Becker snorted.  "Carry on like that and it won't be for long, Jessica.  Didn't you do biology at school?"

"I have a coil. I'm not stupid despite what you obviously think."

"Sorry.  I don't think that.  Sorry."

"It's okay." She looked over to Lester, inclining her head, indicating she wanted him over there with them.  

Inwardly Becker groaned, knowing that he was about to get whatever pep talk they thought would be a good idea, how he wasn't going to be the outsider, and he was just as much a part of things as they were.  

"I know you've been trying to protect us out here, but you've been hell to live with," she said.

He bit his lip.  He knew it, but he really didn't think it mattered that much now.  "I'm supposed to stop you getting hurt.  That's my job."

"But we can look after ourselves.  Even me.  If something happens to us, it's not your fault.  You can ease up a little bit.  Stop trying to do everything.  Show us how to survive out here instead of trying to do it all for us.  What if you get hurt, or worse?"

"You've got each other, you'll manage."  He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.  

"But we want you, as well.  With us, not grumping around all the time."

It was strange, because that almost sounded like an invitation.  But it couldn't be.  He nodded: "I'll try."  He looked across at Lester.  "Was that the proposition?"

"Hardly."  He looked at Jess, who nodded at him encouragingly.  "We had a discussion.  Jess had this ridiculous notion about which of us you might have been interested in."

"It's not ridiculous.  I've seen the way Becker looks at you!  He does whatever you ask," insisted Jess. 

"I'm the boss.  He's paid to do whatever I ask.  And we've all seen the way he runs around after you." He looked at Becker.  "Connor has a sweepstake going on how long it's going to take you to do what Matt is referring to as 'grow a pair' and ask Jess out for dinner or something."

"I'll kill him!" Jess exclaimed.  

"Which will be a relief to us all, but doesn't answer the question."

Becker couldn't quite believe that not only had they both noticed, but that they were also actually having this conversation.  Worse, they were both looking at him expectantly now, wanting an answer.  

Jess nudged him, leaning close.  Her dress really was quite wrecked.  It was distracting.  "You can tell us, we won't be offended."

"Both, I ... I like both, okay?  And what I really want is something I can't ever have so just leave it, Jess."  He poked at the meat, slowly charring on the fire.  It looked cooked.

"But what if you could?"  

She really didn't give up.  Her tiny hand reached out and took the stick they used for cooking away from him, then pulled the meat off the fire.  

"Leave that, and answer my question. "

"She's very bossy, by the way," Lester pointed out.  

He'd moved closer as well, Becker noted.  He felt slightly like an animal being herded.  "You might want to consider that before you answer her."

"And I can kill dinosaurs," Jess added proudly.  

"By accident, Jessica.  Don't forget that part."  Becker looked at them both, right in his face now.  "We could all die out here."

"Yes.  We could, " Lester agreed.  "Always good to look on the bright side."

"And that's exactly the point," Jess added.  "You shouldn't hold back."

It was a bad idea.  It had to be a bad idea.  What about when they got home, if they got home?  What if something happened to one of them and they were all emotionally attached, it would be so much worse?  He shook that one away; he was already emotionally attached.

"Stop thinking," Lester hissed in his ear.  "Just do as you're told, Soldier Boy."

Damn Danny and his big mouth.  But there was no time to worry about that, because then their hands were on him, divesting him of his clothes  and pulling him down into their makeshift bed.  Then they were kissing him, hesitant at first but gradually more demanding, and he stopped trying to reason it all away and just went with it.

***

It was several days later when the anomaly shout went up.  Becker had got used to sleeping in a blanket of warm flesh, relaxing with whichever of them wasn't on watch, or sometimes both of them.  He'd let go and started to sleep properly.  That and the sex did wonders for his temper.  If it wasn't for his constant fear that something might happen to one or both of the others, he might even have admitted that he was happy out there.

It wasn't so much a shout as a shriek, because it was Jess on watch and she was on her feet running across the cave and shaking them both awake.  As if being deafened wouldn't have done that.

"Look!"

Becker looked.  Of all the anomalies he'd ever seen, it was by far the most beautiful.  Wherever it led, they would be going through.

Soon enough they walked through together, to whatever future it might bring.

***

It was Christmas, or sometime close enough to it.  

They were in a back street, dark and empty, lit only by the anomaly, but there was annoying canned festive music coming from what had to be a busy shopping street on the other side of the buildings.  The cold bit into them as soon as they stepped through.   Jess almost curled up into herself in her frail wreck of a dress.  Becker quickly shed his jacket and wrapped her up in it.

"Do you think we're home?" was Jess's first question when she'd got over the shock.  

Lester poked dubiously at a rather wet newspaper that was sticking out of one of the rubbish bins in the alley, then gingerly picked it up between finger and thumb, trying to make out the date in the flickering light of the anomaly.

"We can't be too far out," Becker surmised.  "That's a recycling bin."

"I think..."

Nobody ever found out what Lester thought, because at that moment three large black trucks roared into the alley, and a few moments later they were surrounded by armed guards.  And Matt, Emily, Connor and Abby.

"Oh thank God!" Abby rushed up to Jess and hugged her, joined by Emily only a moment later.

Matt was a little more restrained, but didn't try to hide his relief, pulling Becker into a brotherly hug that the soldier didn't even try to resist.  "Welcome back, mate.  Thought we weren't going to see you again."

"I'm very good at survival, Matt.  Genuine army training will do that to you."

Becker managed to look smug, Lester noted.  Becker often tried to look smug when he was actually feeling something else entirely.  He wondered if Matt knew the man well enough to realise that.  Possibly not, but then he hadn't known him as long.  And by the looks of things there had been a long gap since Matt and the others had seen any of them.

Connor grinned hugely at Lester, who eyed him warily.  "Don't even _think_ about hugging me, Connor."

Connor shook his head.  "Don't worry.  Because, you know you all _really_ stink.  You know that, right?"

"We know," Becker told him.  "We could smell you when you got back, remember?  And you'd been gone a lot longer than us."

Matt frowned.  "How long were you there?"

"Nine days."  Becker frowned as Connor gave a low whistle.  "Why?  How long was it for you?"

"A few months by the looks of it," Lester surmised.  The Christmas music played on.  

"Longer.  You've been gone over a year.  Nearly 16 months."

"But it was just a few days," Jess exclaimed, surfacing from the rather interesting hugfest that the three women had been engaging in.  

Lester tried not to let his mind wander to the various possibilities.

"Anomalies don't throw you back into the same time," Matt told them.  "You were lucky it was only a year.  We thought the sarcosaurus had you."

"And don't think we didn't consider that a sark-o-saurus eating Lester wouldn't be ironic!" Connor added with a grin at Becker.  Abby nudged him in the ribs, and he ducked his head.  "Sorry!"

"Tell me you haven't had us declared dead."  Lester had a number of concerns, most of them stemming from his ex-wife and the fact that he'd never changed his will so that his children's future was secure.  If she'd inherited everything he owned then by now she would have sold it all and enjoyed what she could do with the money.

"No.  But it was getting close.  There was a lot of pressure."

From his ex-wife Selina, no doubt.  Half the house wasn't enough, she'd want the rest of the money from the sale of it and his London flat too.  She wouldn't be pleased to see him back, not at all.  Just the thought of how disappointed she'd be when she realised that he was still alive pleased him no end.  Wretched woman, getting all that money from the divorce wasn't enough for her.  She'd obviously thought  she was about to get the lot.  Ringing her to tell her the good news wasn't good enough.  He decided a personal visit was in order so that he could enjoy the look on her face.

"So my flat's still there?" Jess checked.  "And James's, and Becker's?"

"Yes.  Well..." Matt looked at Becker.  "Sorry mate, but your lease was up and the landlord wouldn't renew without you there to sign."

"We cleared everything out for you, though," Connor piped up cheerfully.  "It's all in Jess's flat."

"So you haven't lost anything," Abby pointed out more gently.  "It's all boxed up.  Safe.  And you never liked that flat anyway, you were always complaining about it."

They weren't mentioning his place, Lester noted.  And Connor was shifting closer to Becker and Jess, almost as if he was trying to avoid Lester.  "What about mine?"

Connor definitely ducked his head.  It was Matt who answered: "Your ex-wife's living there.  It takes seven years to declare someone dead if there's no body.  We couldn't stop her moving in, though.  Sorry."

"We did salvage as much as we could," Abby added.  "That's all at Jess's as well."

"Well then, that's something."  Lester had no intention of letting Selina keep her hands on his property for any longer than necessary.  He was quite looking forward to evicting her.  Poor Jess, though, she'd probably been looking forward to getting home, and now her flat was going to be overrun with junk until he and Becker found somewhere else to live.

He looked at her.  She didn't appear to be terribly dismayed by the news.  In fact, she looked quite pleased.

"I assume the ARC still has a flat?" Lester checked.  "I can use that."

Jess slipped her arm through his, and hugged it close.  He suspected it was partly for warmth.  He wasn't going to do anything to discourage her, though.  "You'll do no such thing.  You're staying with me." She took Becker's hand as well.  "Both of you.  There's plenty of room."

Lester frowned.  He'd shared with Connor before.  It hadn't been a pleasant experience.

Evidently he wasn't the only one who thought so.

"Uh... yeah, me and Abby were thinking we'd get our own place when you guys got back.  We're sort of used to our own space now, and it would be a bit..." He seemed lost for words.

"Alternative?" Abby was looking at the three of them curiously, and he knew her sharp mind would have picked up how things had changed.  Connor might be a genius, but it was Abby who was the bright, observant one.  "But we really do want our own place."

"It'll be a bit cramped with five of us." Becker pointed out.  "You've only got one spare room."

Jess beamed at him.  "I have a huge bed," she whispered.  "And it's a lot more comfortable than that cave."

Connor smirked at Matt with a definite I-told-you-so expression on his face.  That evaporated a moment later when Jess hugged both men closer, still beaming hugely.  

"Plenty of room for all of us!"

Lester had always wondered what would leave Connor at a loss for words.  If his gaping expression were anything to go by, he thought he might have found it.  

He let Jess lead them home.   He suspected it was going to be a rather enjoyable Christmas.

*****


End file.
